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Thursday, October 15, 2015

X-Wing: There has been an awakening

Back in the saddle.

Having spaced out for a couple of months on minis has actually given me a fresh perspective on the meta. The big dog running around right now are Unhinged Y-Wings with Twin Laser Turrets apparently. Nasty? No doubt. However, I'm not so worried when it comes to flying against the majority of the lists out there because I'm so used to Fat turret lists running up and down the field since Han Solo came out so many years ago. No matter what changes really, I'm always flying the same thing. The only difference comes in knowing when to strike and how to move; something that experienced Elite Interceptor pilots do very well.

Alright, let's talk about lists. What do I want to throw out on the battlefield that seems like it'll bring some enjoyment into my life? The classic 789 list that I used to fly was Turr, Jax and Fel. Now that the Imperial Raider is out and the TIE/x1's gotten a new lease on life, I figure its time to change things up a bit.

The new 789 looks something like this:

The dream team is back!

789 (100)

Soontir Fel — TIE Interceptor27

Push the Limit3

Autothrusters2

Stealth Device3

Royal Guard TIE0

Ship Total: 35

Turr Phennir — TIE Interceptor25

Push the Limit3

Autothrusters2

Stealth Device3

Royal Guard TIE0

Ship Total: 33

Juno Eclipse — TIE Advanced28

Push the Limit3

Advanced Targeting Computer1

TIE/x10

Ship Total: 32

What you have here are two tried and true ships that always deliver with one new addition. Juno Eclipse just has what it takes to make back her points. Her dial makes it so that she's a great candidate for Push the Limit because of all the additional greens that she has to play with. Sure, they're not the same hard turns as the Interceptor, but the adjustments to speed on the fly according to battlefield conditions, in addition to PTL'ing a barrel roll into something operational is exactly what you should be looking for. When it comes to Imperial ships, the more action economy you have the better. What I mean by this is really quite simple guys: The more actions you have, the more you want to maximize on using as many of them per turn as possible. The ATC already delivers consistent results on a Target Locked ship, so having the ability to PTL Focus/TL/Evade/barrel beats all other combinations IMO. What you want is consistency, and so far to date, nothing delivers consistency to Imperial ships as much as the vaulted PTL. Just remember guys: The Elite 789 list is about being able to dance and manuver around the battlefield while setting up the winning scenario. The winning scenario for an elite list means that you're putting out damage while receiving none in return. If this means that you have to adjust speeds and just get out of firing arc with Juno, that's exactly what you do. Getting out of arc and re-acquiring TL on a new target is a perfectly good strategy. The same applies to the Interceptors here. Never forget that the 5-straight and 4-green is there for you to re-position and re-engage in an more opportune fashion.

Bonus Round: You can also sub out Juno with Tetran Cowall with PTL, AT, RGT and SD for a perfect switch if you want to rock the 101st theme. Having played around with Tetran some more, I'm really warming up to him; especially since his ability plays really nicely with Autothrusters.

Next on the list is another 3 ship list, but it plays completely different than the one above:

I have you now.

Vader (100)

Darth Vader — TIE Advanced29

Lone Wolf2

Advanced Targeting Computer1

Engine Upgrade4

TIE/x10

Ship Total: 36

Soontir Fel — TIE Interceptor27

Push the Limit3

Autothrusters2

Stealth Device3

Royal Guard TIE0

Ship Total: 35

Omicron Group Pilot — Lambda-Class Shuttle21

Emperor Palpatine8

Ship Total: 29

With the Imperial Raider coming into the meta, two things have improved greatly: The firepower expressed by the TIE/x1, and the Emperor riding in the stock Lambda; also known as the Palpmobile. I've seen builds where Vader would switch out Lone Wolf for Calculation and that's a perfectly viable strategy as well, considering the fact that it can potentially deliver 4 criticals to someone in Range 1 is absurd. The Emperor is there to fly slow and away from the rest of your party while acting as a giant magnet to draw in the flies. That's when your tigers can use their superior maneuverability and speed to setup the kill shots while constantly using the Emperor's ability to turn engagements in your favor. When you read the Emperor's ability, you should probably just replace the text with: Turn 1 dice into a Crit or Evade in each one of your turns. He's the Fateweaver of the Star Wars universe and that means his fat space cow shuttle should be dropping 1s all over the place just so he can squeeze out a few shots. Depending on deployment, you might want to tuck him into a corner and just hard stop first turn while your other ships setup a wider flank.

Lastly, we have something a little less conventional:

No pain, no gain.

Turr (100)

Turr Phennir — TIE Interceptor25

Push the Limit3

Autothrusters2

Stealth Device3

Royal Guard TIE0

Ship Total: 33

"Zeta Ace" — TIE/fo Fighter18

Push the Limit3

Ship Total: 21

Zeta Squadron Pilot — TIE/fo Fighter16

Ship Total: 16

Epsilon Squadron Pilot — TIE/fo Fighter15

Ship Total: 15

Epsilon Squadron Pilot — TIE/fo Fighter15

Ship Total: 15

You can tell I'm really creative with the list names. Seriously though, I'm saving points just so I can run PTL on Zeta and having Turr lead the pack instead of Fel. TIE/fos are actually really good when you think about just how much they've gained for 3 points over your old TIE Fighter. They gained a better dial, the ability to Segnor's Loop on left and right 2s, Target Lock, and gained a Shield upgrade (which costs 4 points by itself normally). The Rebel counterpart gained similar traits, but since they're Rebel scum we'll skip them for this article and talk to them in the next. Either way, I'm just excited to try out some of these new TIE/fos and see how they perform on the battlefield. I could run the standard Fel-led Howlrunner + 3x TIE/fos, but I figure this is more exciting because you won't be tempted to stay together but rather use your extra maneuverability to hopefully outfly your opponents. I swear, Zeta Ace has to be one of the best ships in the new set. For 21 points with PTL, the ship can do some pretty crazy stuff considering he can choose to use either the 2 or the 1 when performing a barrel roll. Compare that to Echo or Phantoms in general where you MUST use a certain template and you have all kinds of movement shenanigans for a bargain price. The firepower is a little lower than most people would like with 2 dice each, but if they're not shooting at you while you're rolling more dice, it's only a matter of time.

Next article will feature a list that I've been working on for Rebels featuring Poe Dameron. Stay tuned!